Walk: Don’t Walk

Clearly, I don’t have a car in Korea. Most people know that me and bicycles have a love-hate relationship. So for all intents and purposes I’m a genuine pedestrian. With that said, pedestrians are the lowest people on the totem pole…in America you are supposed to stop for pedestrians…not in Korea.

They do have walk and don’t walk lights. When its green you are supposed to walk, right? Wrong! Just because the light is green doesn’t mean you can walk. Let me explain: The other day, I was walking up to the cross walk. I can see it just turned green but I’m still a solid 15 seconds from reaching the cross walk. As I approach the cars start blowing through the red light. I’m thinking, wait maybe it wasn’t green. But I look across and the green walk lady is still flashing AND there is the 20 second count-down.

Hold on….Wait-a-second…did those two cars and mo-ped just run that red light? Yes, yes, they did.

This hasn’t happened once, I’ve noticed it when I don’t have to cross the street. If no one is standing and waiting at the cross walk; it’s a free for all! In America there are bicycle lanes. If there is a red light, you wait, doesn’t matter if someone is crossing or not. If you do run a red light, you are breaking the law. With the amount of traffic violations I’ve seen, I think the laws in Korea are a recommendation. The mopeds which deliver anything from McDonald’s to Dry Cleaning use both the road and the side-walk!

One of these days I’m going to do a post on riding the bus, because it takes a special person, with a love for danger to drive a Korean public bus…I’m happy I’m still alive.